It has long been recognized that leptin, a hormone made by adipocytes, is an important circulating signal for the regulation of body weight. In addition, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), especially MMP-2, an adipocyte-secreted protein which promotes multi-cellular adipose clusters, is up-regulated in obesity. The present study is designed to evaluate whether trans-10,cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid (t-CLA) can suppress leptin-induced MMP-2 secretion in 3T3-L1 cells. The result showed that expressions of adipocyte marker proteins were significantly reduced by t-CLA-treated cultures, but not by linoleic acid (LA)-treated ones. Interestingly, MMP-2 secretion was significantly increased by leptin-treated cultures, thereby leading to accelerate adipocyte differentiation, indicating that MMP-2 was a necessary mediator of adipogenesis. However, increasing concentration of t-CLA significantly reduced leptin-induced MMP-2 secretion and triglyceride (TG) content. These findings provide Support for a role for t-CLA in the regulation of metabolism in leptin-induced adipose tissue development. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.